New Tail In Town
by mermaidbyheart
Summary: After Ondina's goodbye Erik does the only thing he knows how to do best, leave. He goes to Sydney where new adventures await him. There he meets a girl who not only resembles Ondina, but shares the mer secret as well. Then he suffers an accident that is about to change his whole life. For better or worse, only time would tell.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my brand new H2O/Mako Mermaids crossover fic. After I watched the second season of Mako Mermaids I realized Erik would make a great couple with Rikki and might be of great help in the H2O world. So here is the first chapter of my Erik/Rikki fic. :-) I also got inspiration to continue with my other H2O/Mako Mermaids crossover - "The Dark Side Of The Moon", so expect a new chapter of it soon! :-)**

* * *

 **01.**

Erik turned around and did the only thing he could - he ran towards the water, seeking distraction in the ocean's depths.

His mind repeated Ondina's last words to him.

"Goodbye, Erik."

" _Goodbye, Erik. Goodbye, Erik_."

Over and over again.

And it wasn't like he was heartbroken over her walking away from him. Or maybe he was - he was too confused to know what exactly he was feeling. Sure, it hurt him watch Ondina leave, but he'd get over it, he knew he would.

Erik knew that she was angry at him, but whatever he did back in the merman chamber - he did it for her. He wished she could understand that. The place - dangerous or not - belonged to him as much as it belonged to Zac. And the only thing he wanted to do was to find out how it worked and to help Ondina.

Only that.

If she and her friends didn't understand that he wasn't going to try and convince them.

He would carry on. Travel again.

Go to the yet next town, or village, or city.

He was going to find new job. Meet new people maybe. Carry on with his life.

But he would never forget Ondina. She was more special to him than anyone had ever been. He really cared about her.

Too much.

He prayed she knew that.

Erik closed his eyes and sped through the waves. He was so fast that he felt as if he was flying. He swam for hours before he picked up his small treasure and finally decided to get back to the mainland.

When he dried himself off and stood up, he saw the mermaids that had made circles around Mako. He smiled sadly knowing Ondina probably was somewhere out there between them right now.

"Goodbye, Ondina."

With those last words he left the beach never turning back.

He got to the boatshed he'd been living at in the last few months as quickly as he could. In a matter of fifteen minutes his whole luggage was packed up and he was ready to leave.

He looked around for one last time, before lifting his backpack on his back and then he left.

He went straight to the bus station and bought a ticket for the first possible bus that it turned out was heading to Sydney.

It didn't take Erik long to adjust to Sydney's dynamics and he quickly got familiar with the city.

The first few days he spent exploring Sydney. Once he knew all about it, he found himself yet another job as a waiter, but this time at a restaurant, not a cafe. He'd go swimming in the mornings and then work all afternoon.

Erik had spent three months now living in the city and he really enjoyed it.

One beautiful Sunday afternoon he went for a long walk on the beach and after three hours he ended up stopping at a small coffee shop to get himself something to drink.

He walked in casually looking around, when suddenly something caught his attention and he froze.

At the register there was a girl with white-blond curly hair. She had her back turned to him and was scanning the menu in her hands. Erik couldn't help himself and rushed at her direction.

"Ondina?!"

The girl turned to look at him. It wasn't Ondina but Erik was shocked to realize how much this girl reminded him of her. The stranger had eyes as blue and beautiful as only the ocean could be and white-blond curls were falling heavily on her shoulders.

"I'm sorry." Erik said quickly. "I thought you were someone else."

"Whatever."

Something in her short reply and sharp tone reminded him of Ondina even more. However he quickly shook that thought off and turned to the waiter to give him his order.

"A glass of orange juice, please."

"A mango smoothie, please."

He and the strange girl said simultaneously. Erik smiled.

"You first."

The girl rolled her eyes annoyed but repeated her order to the waiter who then turned to Erik to take his, before walking away to prepare both orders. When a couple of minutes later he handed them their drinks Erik realized he'd need a straw.

"I need a straw-"

"I need a straw-"

Him and the girl spoke at the same time yet again. She glared at him for a moment, but didn't say anything. The waiter handed them their straws and the girl quickly walked away to a table with two girls on it, in a deep conversation. One - blond and the other - brunette. The stranger sat down and immediately stepped in their conversation. Erik couldn't help but follow after her.

"Excuse me, I didn't catch your name?" He asked and gave her a small smile.

"That's because I didn't say it." She answered shortly.

When Erik didn't walk away as she had expected, she sighed.

"It's Rikki."

"That's a beautiful name." He said. "And I'm Erik."

"Well if there isn't anything else -" The girl, Rikki began.

"Yeah, I'll leave you to it."

And Erik walked away sitting at one of the other tables. He took a sip of his drink and his eyes drifted back to Rikki again.

She seemed really interested in her chat with the other two girls. Erik let his eyes explore them.

One of them was with long, brown hair, hazel eyes and oval face. She somehow reminded Erik a bit of Mimmi. The other girl was with dirty blond hair that was up in a ponytail. Her eyes were blue and she seemed to have been trying to make the other two girls not argue over the thing they were talking about. That reminded Erik of Sirena who was always the peace-maker when Mimmi and Ondina were fighting over something.

He smiled realizing he kind of missed the Gold Coast and his merfriends.

If they were ever his friends, that is.

Erik bottomed up his drink and left the empty glass on the table. Before he stood up to leave however, he wrote something on a piece of paper.

On his way out of the cafeteria, he walked past Rikki and put it on her table. She glared at him, then opened it to read what it said. He had given her his phone number and under it was a note _"This is my number, so..call me maybe?"._

Rikki rolled her eyes annoyed and curled the note between her fingers. That guy had started to really get on her nerves.

Big time.


	2. Chapter 2

**02.**

After leaving the café Rikki waved goodbye to her friends and went for a walk on the beach.

She wandered around her feet kicking the sand and the wind waving her hair. Her blue eyes were glimmering with a strange, wild flame while she was staring out at the ocean.

The curly blond shoved her hands into her pockets and her fingers felt something inside its depths. She frowned and pulled it out realizing it was the piece of paper from that guy, Erik, she and her friends had met at the cafe. She opened it and stared at his number and the message under it. _Call me maybe_ , he wrote.

There was something that was bothering her ever since she met the guy. First of all he asked for a straw for his orange juice. A _straw_. Not that is was something extraordinary, but when asked for it, it sounded more like a habit than a momentum decision. Rikki had learnt to be cautious through the years and hadn't heard anyone beside her friends sound like that when they asked for a straw. And they did it like all the time, because they couldn't take the risk of getting splashed with their drink in front of everyone and be discovered.

Still, there was no way of that Erik guy to share the same secret as them. Rikki seemed certain of that, but it still bothered her.

The second thing she found odd about him was that he didn't ask her for her number. Instead he simply gave her _his own_. It was an odd gesture, something she couldn't help but wonder about.

Then again she and her friends were in Sydney on vacation, the curly blond remembered. Vacation where Rikki was supposed to take her time and forget about Zane, not to go date anybody else.

She began curling the note between her fingers, but just as she was about to throw it off, the curly blond decided against it and shoved it in her pocket again. She was a young woman now and didn't take rush decisions. Instead of heading back to town she ran towards the water and dived in.

{ * }

Erik was sitting on the terrace of his apartment, staring out at the ocean. He tried to think about Ondina, but his thoughts brought him back to the strange girl he had met.

There was something in her that felt familiar. That felt weird yet hit too close to home, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

He sighed and walked inside where the television was still on. He switched channel after channel but couldn't find anything interesting to watch so he finally switched it off grabbed his keys and got out of his apartment heading to the beach.

Because if there wasn't anything else to do, he could always go for a swim.

He dove in and swam, careful not to get too close to the docks or any other risky place.

He wandered around the waters for a couple of hours when he went up to the surface to take a breath and look around. When he crabbed the surface however, he realized pitch black clouds were covering up the sky and there was a severe storm coming up. And what was worse the waves were getting bigger. Erik quickly ducked down again and headed back towards the beach.

For a moment he stopped to look around so he could check if he was heading the right direction.

That's when it happened.

He didn't notice there was a shadow above him. Up on the surface there was a small boat that its captain was struggling to keep still. The waves were hitting it with great power and after yet another hit, the hangers of the anchor that was hanging on one of the sides of the ship broke down, because they were too old and rusty to survive yet another severe storm. The anchor fell down and before Erik could even look up, it hit his head with enormous strength.

Seconds before he passed out, Erik noticed a blur of orange flying in the water towards him.

{ * }

Rikki swam for hours until she decided to finally head back.

She felt the sun disappear above her and swam up to the surface to see what was going on. The sky was whole black and she knew she had to hurry if she didn't want to be stuck out in the ocean because of the storm. She was about to duck under water again when heard a strange noise and turned around; a few meters away from her there was a small boat fighting with the big waves. She dove in, when suddenly she spotted something under the boat and her eyes widened in shock.

There was a man in the water. But not an ordinary one. His upper part was human and he was quite muscular, but instead of legs there was a blue tail attached to his waist.

The water above him suddenly bubbled and she looked up his head to see the anchor of the boat she had seen seconds ago sinking down with enormous speed.

"Come on, get away from there." Rikki thought.

But it was too late. The anchor hit his head and he sunk down to the ocean floor. Rikki speed swam towards him only to find him unconscious and to realize it was the same Erik guy who had given her his phone number back at that café. She knew she couldn't just leave him there, yet she knew nothing about him. The curly blond contemplated for a few seconds, then carefully placed him on her back, putting his arms around her neck and started speed swimming towards the beach.

Once she reached it, she rolled him off her back and pulled them both out of the water. She dried them both off and tried to wake him up all in vain. When she pulled her hand that was under his head, she realized it was covered in blood. The curly blond pulled her phone out of her pocket with her other hand dialing a number.

"Cleo, I need you and Bella to come as quick as possible to our secret spot." The curly blond said. "And please hurry." She added and looked at Erik lying lifeless on the sand.

"We have a big problem."


	3. Chapter 3

**03.**

Rikki pulled the unconscious Erik further on the sand and away from the water, seconds before Cleo and Bella finally arrived.

When they got a better view of the sight before them, their eyes widened.

"Rikki, what happened?" Bella asked moving her eyes from Rikki to Erik still unconscious. "Wait - isn't he that guy from the cafe that asked for your name?!"

"Later, Bella. Now I need you two to help me take him to the flat."

"What?" Cleo's eyes widened.

"You heard me." Rikki's tone was firm. "Look, once we get there I'll explain everything."

"Fine." Bella nodded. "We don't have much time before it starts raining anyway."

She moved to help Rikki to put one of Erik's arms around her neck, then she put his other around hers. Cleo moved to stand behind them so she could help if needed. Erik was muscular thus quite heavy, but somehow they managed to take him to the small flat they were ranting.

They carefully placed him on the couch and while Rikki was cleaning the wound on his head, she told Bella and Cleo everything word by word.

"So..he's like us? A mermaid?!" Cleo asked trying to assimilate the shocking news she'd just received.

"A mer _man_ , Cleo." Rikki corrected her, throwing off the now dirty piece of cotton she'd just used and sitting down on a chair.

"Yeah, right, whatever."

The brunette sat down on the other chair, running her hand through her hair.

"So what is your plan?" Bella asked Rikki. "I mean..why did you bring him here?"

"Because I couldn't leave him there, Bella. Unconscious with tail and all." Rikki sounded irritated.

"And what are we going to do with him?" Cleo asked from the chair, still trying to assimilate everything.

"We'll wait for him to wake up and we'll check on how he is. After we make sure he's fine, we'll tell him to go."

"Just like that?!" Cleo raised her eyebrows. "He doesn't look that dumb to me, Rikki. He'll probably want to know how did he get here and how did you find him!"

"Well..we're going to have to think of something." Rikki answered quickly. "But he can't know we share the same secret and that we know about him."

"Why not? It's not like he's going to expose us, he's like us after all." Bella lifted her eyes.

"I don't know if we can trust him."

"That sounds meaningful; you don't know if we can trust him, yet you bring him here." Cleo rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"Oh, stop it, Cleo, will you now?!"

Their conversation was interrupted by quiet moan from the couch. Erik was coming into consciousness.

He moved his head a bit and his eyelids started trembling, until he lifted them and opened his eyes. His hand immediately shot up to his head that he felt like it was going to explode.

"Where am I?" He murmured quietly, travelling around his surroundings with his eyes. "How did I get here?!"

"Easy." Rikki was the first to speak. "You were hit on the head pretty bad, so my friends and I brought you to our place."

The curly blond handed him a glass of water with a straw.

"Here, drink some water."

Erik took it but frowned.

"What's the straw for?"

Rikki and the other two girls were taken aback for a moment not knowing what to say, but the curly blond was the first to react.

"Back at that café you asked for orange juice with a straw, so I thought you'd probably want a straw for the water too."

"Café? What café? I don't remember going to a café. Actually..I don't remember anything." Erik took a sip of the water with the straw, trying to recollect something, anything.

"Look, Erik.." Rikki began sharing a look with Cleo and Bella, when he interrupted her.

"Is Erik my name?"

Rikki frowned realizing the consequences of the hit on his head were way bigger than they'd originally expected. She shook her head and took the glass from his hands leaving it on the drawer next to the couch.

"I think you should get some rest. Try to get some sleep now. We'll be in the kitchen, so if you need anything just call us, ok?!"

"Yeah, thanks for everything.

"Don't mention it."

The curly blond stood up motioning for Cleo and Bella to follow her into the other room. Once in the kitchen Cleo closed the door behind her back and turned to Rikki.

"He probably has amnesia. Now what do we do with him?"

"We are going to help him remember everything, but until then he has to stay here and live with us. He doesn't remember being a merman and he doesn't know he should be careful around water. He could be exposed the minute he goes out of here."

"I think Rikki's right, Cleo." Bella said shrugging her shoulders. "We can't leave him on his own. It's dangerous for all of us."

Cleo nodded.

"Yeah, you're right. We won't be staying here forever though. And if he doesn't regain his memory until we have to go back to the Gold Coast..what are we going to do then?"

"I don't know." Rikki shrugged deep in thoughts and looked at Cleo. "But we've got to hope for the best."

Bella nodded quietly.

"We've got three weeks until we have to get back." The dirty blond said hopefully. "He's going to remember everything until then."

"That's right." Rikki nodded. "We'll help him remember and everything's going to be ok."

The brunette looked at her uncertain.

"Are you sure about that?"

"I'm not sure of anything anymore."

The curly blond crossed her hands in front of her chest.

"But we don't really have a choice, do we?!"

As much as Cleo hated to admit it Rikki was right. Bella was the first one to break the tense silence.

"But what are we going to do with him? I mean..he doesn't remember that touching water for him means growing a tail. We can't keep him away from water forever and we can't be around him all the time either. While we're gone he might want to wash his hands or take a shower and the second water touches him he'll flash a tail."

"Bella's right." Cleo nodded. "The shock of touching water and growing a tail could be really dangerous in his condition."

"So what're you saying?! That we should tell him he's a merman right away?!" Rikki lifted her eyebrows high, hands crossed in front of her chest.

"No, of course." Bella said shaking her head.

"All I'm saying is we should just..try to prepare him."


End file.
